The Dutch are the world's leaders in the ower business despite they seem to lack comparative advantage in the traditional sense. Comparative advantages paid a role in the history of the Dutch ower industry and they still have a role today. Based on a critic of Porter's theories, the investigation suggests that the exploitation of comparative advantages is allowed only to those rms and industries that already possess a competitive advantage, based on technology, logistics infrastructure, innovation and human skills. So that comparative advantages and competitive advantages join themselves in a sort of helix process based on social innovation and collective learning. The Italian ower industry is both less productive, less innovative, and fragmented in a number of small family businesses. The main lesson to the Italian ower industry is that some regional strategies based just on local comparative advantages is not a rewarding option, unless it is reinforced by a clear competitive advantage strategy, technology and innovation based, that is able to make value out of such comparative local advantages and is also able to exploits and take pro t out of comparative advantages wherever they are abroad.